BRENDAN RODGERS claimed Liverpool deserved to take a lead into next week's Capital One Cup semi-final second leg at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea will start favourites after the 1-1 first leg draw at Anfield last night but Rodgers warned them his rejuvenated team are not out of it.

After Raheem Sterling showed the benefits of his recent sunshine break in Jamaica by cancelling out Eden Hazard's first half penalty Liverpool were denied victory by a series of saves by Chelsea keeper Thibaut Courtois - who was man of the match - while Steven Gerrard struck the post.

Rodgers said: "I thought we thoroughly deserved to win the game. We went behind to the only shot they had on target - and that was a penalty - but we showed wonderful character.

"Some of our play, our aggression, our defending and the way we continued to take the game to Chelsea was very impressive.

"It was a wonderful performance. I was really pleased because it again shows the improvements that we are making - and it sets up the second leg perfectly.

"They are at home and they have probably got to o pen up a bit more. Is the pressure on them? No, I think it is still all to play for.

"The creation of our chances was very impressive and hopefully in the second leg if we can put a few of those away then we will be in a better position in terms of the result.

Rodgers' believes Sterling's break will be beneficial.

I thought we thoroughly deserved to win the game

Brendan Rodgers

"This about the boy's life and his career. Plenty of people will probably comment on it but I'm only worried about what we do for the lad.

"He is a very young talent but you have seen tonight he's fresh. It's not physical rest, more mental rest for a young player who has had so much thrown on him.

"Sometimes as a manager you hav to look at individual players and for him he has come back refreshed and ready for a big second part to the season."

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho admitted Liverpool deserved to draw but claimed his team were always in control.

"It was a fair result. I don't think Liverpool deserved to lose this game because they performed really well.

"But we were in control. If we had had a bit more quality in our passing we could have found spaces and could have scored more goals because the way they play with three defenders had a lot of space to counter attack but we were not very efficient in our transition when we recovered the ball."

Mourinho refused to say Chelsea were favourites despite winning 14 out of 15 home games this season but added: "The important thing for us is that this semi-final is over two legs and now there is only one leg and that is at Stamford Bridge.

"I am not saying we are the favourites I'm saying now the semi-fianl is one leg because this was a draw and because of that we have to win at Stamford Bridge."